League of Legends

Azubu Frost had an amazing performance in their Group Stage with the 3-0 sweep and coasting to advance. TSM won the North American Regionals which bought them a bye right into the quarterfinal match. They are now the last standing North American team. Will they be able to continue on bearing such a title and move on to the semi-finals? Or will Azubu stop them dead in their tracks?

TSM start the game by bringing the entire team from their blue side along the top lane to try and circle into Azubu's jungle. Shy on Jayce spots them in the top river and pressures them enough so that they back off and Frost wards there just to be on the safe side. Azubu set their sights on bottom lane tri-brush and move on to take TSM's red buff as TSM replicates the same and invade to take Azubu's red. Shyvana would go for the first gank attempt of the match on to a top lane Jayce but would only be able to force the flash out of him. Maokai would attempt the first gank for Azubu mid lane onto Karthus but Reginald would spot him early and successfully walk away (or float in this case). Maokai would then shift his focus on to Dyrus in top lane and chase him with the help of Jayce and RapidStar blowing his ultimate on Lux from middle lane to pick up first blood for Jayce.

Madlife on Blitzcrank bottom would followup the overall pressure by pulling in Xpecial on Sona but TSM would respond with a Karthus ult to take down both Blitzcrank and Miss Fortune for the two to one exchange. Dyrus on Darius top would use the help from TheOddOne's Shyvana to try and get a fleeing Jayce but even with the blood ticking down he would barely escape with his life. An aggressive three man gank bottom would pick up another Sona kill and Chaox on Ezreal would just barely dodge a Lux ultimate to run away. Azubu would use this opportunity to take the first dragon kill of the game at 10:20.

At 11:30 Azubu Frost are now up 4-2 in kills and have a 2.5k gold advantage.

With pressure mounting on to Darius, Jayce would pick up the solo kill top with the help of ignite and follow it up with Azubu's first tower kill of the game. With players now split on opposite sides of the map the teams would swap tower kills with TSM taking a tower top and Azubu taking one bottom. Azubu would eventually get the upper hand by backing out and picking up the second dragon kill of the game. Frost would also find a lone Karthus mid and Blitz and Lux would barely miss the kill opportunity as RapidStar misses the Lux ultimate. A fight would eventually break out around TSM's blue buff as Azubu successfully steal it. But TSM would go for the offense and shutdown Jayce and finish up Miss Fortune as she tries to flee. Though, as TSM gets low, Lux is able to find Ezreal and zap him for the two to one exchange.

Still feeling confident, Frost puts their pressure on to the final middle lane turret and take it down with the amazing poke and power they currently possess. TSM would try for the initiate and catch a few of Frost off guard to kill both Jayce and Miss Fortune with the dunks of Darius' ultimate. Azubu Frost would back off but take their third dragon as a consolation prize for losing two of their members.

At 26 minutes into the game the kill count has become tied at 6 kills apiece but Azubu have a 6k gold advantage.

Frost continues to not back down at any point and puts the high pressure poke down on to the final bottom lane tower. TSM would see another opening and Darius would pull Lux into the team for the kill. As TSM goes and kills Baron, Azubu would take this opportunity to take down both the middle lane base turret and the bottom base turret as well. TSM would successfully collapse down to bottom lane and pick up kills on Moakai and Miss Fortune as they run away, with the help of Karthus' ultimate. TSM would try and take this as an opportunity to go for the first middle tower kill for them but they would get pressured back, eventually leading them to have to fight between both middle lane towers and have Karthus, Ezreal, Sona, and Shyvana falling for that mistake. Azubu would only lose Lux in the process for a four to one exchange. Azubu Frost would then rush in to TSM's base and take bottom inhibitor along with moving right on up to take that last remaining top lane turret. They then back off, making sure not to become too overly aggressive again... but not before taking their third dragon of the game.

At 33:40 into the game the kills are still tied but at 10 kills each and Azubu now having a 8.5k gold advantage instead.

A respawned middle lane inhibitor in TSM's base would fall down again as Frost backs off and are making good use out of the minion waves and applying their own pressure to where the largest waves are occurring. A good initiate by TSM at the top lane base turret via a Sona ultimate would be cleansed away by the caught members of Azubu, eventually leading to a two for two exchange by the teams. Azubu would back off but not before they pick up that top lane inhibitor they so desperately wanted. At this point in the match Azubu Frost's tower situation has just a small dent in it where as TSM's is absolutely decimated.

Azubu would switch their focus to bottom lane and take the inhibitor, forcing the team fight situation and coming out with the full on ace against TSM for the win.

The game starts out in much better shape than the last one, with TSM taking control of it from the get-go. They Blitzpulled the blue buff and then transition in to a 1v2 top. Frost realizes this and goes for the counter blue invade. There is a lot of contention over this buff and it resets several times during the fight, and when Skarner finally commits and takes it, Xpecial gets a good grab and TSM kills Taric.

While all this commotion is going on bottom, Chaox is channelling his inner Captain Jack and ends up pushing down top turret at 5:48 as Graves. TSM continues to run away with this game, getting a pick off on Skarner in the jungle, followed up by a Dragon. TSM continues to pick up kills around the map and Frost is looking really demoralized until a well-executed countergank bottom ends up 1-2 for Frost and they take the dragon.

As the mid game approaches one of the longest brawls I have ever seen took place. What started as a simple gank mid by Mao on to Vladimir led to Frost's bot lane showing up, followed by TSM's and Shy on Irelia. Maokai and Karthus end up taking out Vlad but give up their lives, but not before Reginald kites out Frost enough to secure a kill on to Irelia with his ult from the grave.

TSM eventually takes the third dragon and then swing mid on to the Vladimir there. What seems like a good play goes south so fast it's almost painful to watch as all of Azubu Frost show up and kill 4 of TSM, leaving only TheOddOne at less than 10% health. TSM did manage to take out Vlad, but Frost secures the Baron off of this.

Frost is content to just push out lanes with Baron for a bit, but some overzealousness leads to CloudTemplar getting caught out. As TSM goes in for the 4v5, they somehow lose the fight 4-2 and their remaining 2 mid towers. After Frost comes back around for the final fight at mid, Irelia charges straight in and Frost manage to systematically pick apart TSM, pushing in the inhib and the nexus for a clean 2-0 victory.